Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-24
BEDS OF ALL NATIONS.
Some of the PeeuliarisIes In Former Time

The beds of the ancients had in gem
eral few peculiarities TO distinguish
them from our own simpler sorms,
Both the Greeks and the Romans had
their beds supported on frames that re-
semblcd our modern bedsteads; feath1
er and wool mattresses were common,
and the bed-clothing, in the luxurious
period of each nation, was richly deco.
rated with elaborate needlework. The
Britons. when conquered by Cesar,
slept on skins, after the manner of our
North American Indians; but at later
period they made use of straw sacks as
beds. The ancient Egyptians had
couch of peculiar shape and profu-
sion of soft cushions and richly en-
broidered drapery. Most of the beds
mentioned in the Bible were probably
of the ordinary simple kind.
During the middle ages beds were
fiiade Of coarse canvas and filed with
straw or leaves. These could be OPEN
ed and the litter re-madc daily, MS is
the custom to-day with the mattresses
in the old-fashioned inns of France and
Italy. The bedsteads were low-posted
and usually had canopy at the head.
In the Bayeux tapestry Edward the
Confessor is represented lying upon a
raised seat. his head supported by
squared pillows, and the canopy over
his head is attached TO the wall Scott,
in his romance of ''Ivanhoe," describes
one of the beds in the mansion of Ced-
So tbo Cax>r nc oapr;st;,,o, ~ =. ,,,do
"hutch or bed-frame, stuffed with clean
straw and Accommodated with two or
three sheepskins by way Of bedclothes.
The house of the ancient English
gentleman was not, as general thing,
provided with bedrooms. A chamber
or shed was built against the wall that
Enclosed the mansion and its Dependent
cies, and in this little cell the lord and
his lady slept. Sometimes there was
another chamber of the same kind
built for the daughter or young ladies
of the house. Many illusions to such
bedrooms are found in Chauncer. In
the '.Miller's Tale" there is such
room spoken Of in the carpenters
house. The miller in the Reeves
Tale had only one bedroom, and his
daughter slept in the same room in a
bed covered with .sheets and Chalon
coverlets fairly spread" As Il general
thing, the young men of the house and
the guests slept on tables ard benches
in the great hall where wooden cover
lets or blankets were provided for
warmth. Servants and attendants slept
on the floor.
Later on, in. the time of the Tudors,
the "four-poste" bedstead, an immense
piece of furniture, having canopy
supported at each corner by the posts.
became the fashionable sleeping-couch.
Some of the old wills mention .'posted
sett work bedsteads." These paneled
bedsteads were sometimes of elegant
and massive architecture. The col
umns resembled huge balusters, and
rose from square dado bases, and all
the frame-pieces were carved with
decorative holdings of various pat
terms. On some of the earlier bed
steads the column terminated with fig
ures representing the four cvangelists.
In medieval ballad there is men,
ton made of '.the four gospellorous
(gospclers or evangelists) on the four
pilloues (pillars) and heads of angels,
all of one mould" The invocation
still in use in some of the English
country places is an echo of this old
custom:
Matthew, Mark. LUXE and John,
,15rbs the bed that sleep on.
Two ns3gnls Ht ms head.
Four eiig''ss FOUND my ect:
Two IA Watch nAd two to pray
And two 70 CatTy ny soul away.
Under these 2.i,,4. = work bed
steads were pa t,tl.Gle-bpds for the
body servants and children. Il is re-
lated OF a Spanish pas WAC went to
England with his master in the time
of Queen Elizabeth. that one day while
wandering about the spacious mansion,
he entered the rooms where the maids
were making the beds, and spying tie
arrangements of the sliding beds was
quite taken with them. In his own
country he had slept on straw in the
hostler's loft, but in England he had
found that rather uncomfortable on ac-
count of the cold. So he says to his
master: ''Sir, there are a sort of little
beds under the great beds in this
house. which they say are for servants;
1 pray you to suffer me to lie in one of
them" In the sleeping chamber was
usually .'perch," answering to an
old-fashioned clothes-horse. On it, says
an old writer, chang your clothes,
mantles, frocks, cloaks, doublets, furs,
winter clothes, and of summer"
Shakspeare's second best bed"
with "the furniture" which he be-
queathed to his wife, Ann Hathaway,
was undoubtedly one of those huge
Elizabethsn bcdsteads with canopy,
curtains and square pillows. The fur
niture consisted of the changed beds,
harden sheets, of fine fax, ''fiock beds
coverlets. ",."pillow beers" and "count-
er points," so named from the fact
that the squares were in contrasting
colors. The well-to-do gentleman Of
the late middle ages kept a good sup
ply of bedding. In The Tanning of
the Shrew," Gremio glibly names
over the furniture Of his country
house, and is careful to include bed
apparel.
In ivory Golfers have stuffed my crowns.
In cyprus chests my arrays, counter points,
Costly apparel. tents and canopics,
Fine linen, Turkey cushions, boss d with pearl,
Variance of Venice gold and ncedework.
The "Great Bed of Ware men,
toned by Shakespeare is probably the
largest bed in the world. II is of the
Tudor style, twelve feet square, of
solid oak, and deliberately carved. For
three centuries or more il has been
preserved at the inn of the Saracen's
Head in the town Of Ware, in Hert-
fordshirc. As many as twelve per-
sons are said to have slept in it at one
time Cosmopolitan ReDiesO.
Conversation in 1888: He-'sI saw
a lady at the theater last night with